• i fucking hate insects (unregistered)

    I fucking hate insects

  • @Deprecated (unregistered) in reply to ChiefDanGeorge

    Simple solution: turn the laser up to 'high'.

  • Jasmine (unregistered) in reply to i fucking hate insects

    Good for you that a spider is not an insect. Personally, I don't mind spiders in my house, and I can't say I understand why people are so afraid of them - 99% of them are perfectly harmless.

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    They're not just for weighing trucks. If you're weighing a car, or an empty container, you can't rely on a weight limit to detect its presence.
    It's just as well that there's an operator on site, then, for those tricky situations where you need to test something which weighs less than a tonne.

    The WTF in this article appears to be that no-one trained the operators to carry out basic maintenance for themselves.

  • Some Wonk (unregistered)

    You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have spiders with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?

  • Donkey Hotay (unregistered) in reply to Jasmine
    Jasmine:
    Good for you that a spider is not an insect. Personally, I don't mind spiders in my house, and I can't say I understand why people are so afraid of them - 99% of them are perfectly harmless.

    It's the 1% that give the other 99% a bad name.

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    After I left the first time, someone at the mill called our dispatcher and told him that based on my truck's weight, I wasn't empty. This proved true on subsequent visits as well; my weight was substantially more than the other trucks. The reason, it turned out, was that I had a "log" in my drum. That's concrete terminology for a buildup of dried concrete on the fins inside the drum.

    Later that week, they rented a big air compressor and a small, hand-held jackhammer and had me get down inside the drum to break it loose.

    Couldn't you just toss a stick of dynamite in there?

    On second thought, maybe not.

  • (cs)

    Hunt! Hunt! Hunt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCJOEN1DcsU

  • James (unregistered)

    Here's one to keep you up at night:

    http://www.breakitdownblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/spider-hell.jpg

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to Harrow
    Harrow:
    SR:
    I don't often do CAPTCHAs but "appellatio"?
    It's a perfectly cromulent word. It's derived from "appellation" and "fellatio", and means "the art of calling someone a c*cks*cker, especially in a non-obvious way".
    "You clean roosters with a Hoover"?
  • iMalc (unregistered) in reply to Mel
    Mel:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    There aren't many huntsman spiders in NZ - I never saw one in 27 years of living there. There's also only the odd whitetail and redback (both imported from Aussie, afaik), and katipo. Oh, we also have the spiders used in the movie Arachnophobia. Avondale spiders - scary-looking, but completely harmless.

    You'd be better looking out for a giant weta (again, mostly harmless)...

    Are you trying to scare people off! In reality in NZ you'll mostly only see little daddy-long-legs spiders occasionally, and the odd other harmless small thing. It what you might find in Auzzy that you have to worry about.

    True though that the white tail is becomming a problem in NZ as of late. Both myself and my sister have been bitten by them in recent years. But then I was sweeping out the dustiest of garages full of junk that nobody had been in for ages, and it was full of them.

    Nice article.

  • Keybounce (unregistered) in reply to Justice
    Justice:
    Also, why wasn't the operator trained to perform these basic maintenance tasks?
    Operator trained?

    Operator ... trained???

    Man, what have you been snorting, coke out your nostril?

    The reason, it turned out, was that I had a "log" in my drum. That's concrete terminology for a buildup of dried concrete on the fins inside the drum.
    Mythbusters did a test of this and an old myth. Turns out that about 1 to 1.5 sticks of dynamite detonated in the middle of the truck (I think it was suspended in mid-air) loosens most of the concrete making it easier to remove.

    Check with your insurance company first, yada yada.

  • Poppavein (unregistered)

    Something very similar happened in a now-mostly-defunct company I used to work for. The early models of their point-of-sale terminal had infrared touch screens, and every afternoon, one or two terminals would "go dead" only to miraculously recover a few hours later (or when a field tech would start working on it in the shade). IR screens were replaced with capacitive ones, problem solved.

  • eros - doesn't apply this article (unregistered) in reply to Poppavein
    But when he arrived on site, the operator told him that the problem fixed itself and thanked him for coming anyway.
    There was an operator there? How useless an idiot was he?
  • (cs) in reply to Warren
    Warren:
    Could it have been fixed over a wob interface?

    FTFY!

  • Thursday's Geek (unregistered) in reply to Justice
    Justice:
    I want to believe that picture has been faked somehow. Otherwise, I can only conclude that the child is some sort of Spider Shaman who will one day conjure an army of the beasts and destroy us all.

    Ah, I have pictures of me with my pet tarantula on my face. Spiders can be cute and fuzzy and gentle. I haven't quite worked up my courage to picking up a black widow with my bare hands, but I know it can be done.

  • (cs) in reply to Keybounce
    Keybounce:
    Justice:
    Also, why wasn't the operator trained to perform these basic maintenance tasks?
    Operator trained?

    Operator ... trained???

    Man, what have you been snorting,

    I agree. It's amazing how weighbridge operators can stuff up a simple procedure, let along solve unforseen problems.

    Electrical devices connecting a computer to the real world, outdoors, operated by people willing to work in remote locations with terrible hours.. what could possibly go wrong?

    I'm automating our bridges, but there's a downside to having truck drivers become de-facto operators too..

  • Anderson Silva (unregistered) in reply to OzPeter
    OzPeter:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    I take it she doesn't know about the *poisonous* spiders that make a huntsman look like a pussy. Or the snakes .. you know .. the deadly ones?

    Between the sharks, the snakes, the spiders, and the dingos, there's no reason to ever visit Australia.

  • (cs) in reply to Thursday's Geek
    Thursday's Geek:
    I haven't quite worked up my courage to picking up a black widow with my bare hands, but I know it can be done.
    Several million of them in the east Texas area around Huntsville/Conroe/Livingston would love for you to try.
  • (cs) in reply to i fucking hate insects
    i fucking hate insects:
    I fucking hate insects
    Let's get rid of them all. Then the frogs, lizards, bats, preying manti, chamaeleontidae, and leaping fish will all be coming for you.

    Oh, wait... there won't be any preying manti. My booboo.

  • jmzrbnsn (unregistered) in reply to Mel
    Mel:
    Oh, we also have the spiders used in the movie Arachnophobia. Avondale spiders - scary-looking, but completely harmless.
    The Avondale is the huntsman, they were first spotted in Avondale, Auckland, after towing away on logging ships in the '20s.
  • jmzrbnsn (unregistered) in reply to jmzrbnsn
    jmzrbnsn:
    .. towing away on...
    Damn - stowing
  • Classy (unregistered) in reply to Anderson Silva

    Box jellyfish are the ones you REALLY have to look out for. Much of the north coast beaches can't be swum in for a significant period of the year. You REALLY don't want to come across one of these.

    Oh, and if you are foolish enough to wander through the desert, I'd stay away from taipan snakes. They're pretty inquisitive and will actually come towards you to check you out, but won't attack unless you do something to annoy you. I wouldn't bother trying to get help.

    Crocodiles are a bit of a problem, too.

    We used to get brown snakes in our back yard in suburban Canberra. You usually survive a bite from them, but get pretty sick. Same with redback spiders, which are all over the place. Funnelweb spiders in Sydney are quite aggressive, particularly the females, and a fair bit more dangerous than redbacks.

    Huntsmen, although large, are comparatively harmless, and, as another person commented, will keep away the flies.

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to Anderson Silva
    Anderson Silva:
    OzPeter:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    I take it she doesn't know about the *poisonous* spiders that make a huntsman look like a pussy. Or the snakes .. you know .. the deadly ones?

    Between the sharks, the snakes, the spiders, and the dingos, there's no reason to ever visit Australia.

    Don't forget the box jelly fish.

  • (cs)

    Nice arachnid story!

  • (cs)

    Laser? Meh.

    "Nothing beats a blaster at your side, kid."

    • Han Solo
  • b (unregistered) in reply to Zapp Brannigan

    Or of course the Irukandji Jellyfish.

    To quote from wikipedia:

    "tiny and extremely venomous ... no larger than a fingernail... a very small amount of venom [causes] excruciating muscle cramps in the arms and legs, severe pain in the back and kidneys, and a burning sensation of the skin and face), headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, high heart rate and blood pressure.

    There is no known antidote. Morphine will not help reduce the pain."

    Have fun at the beach kids! :-)

  • Rob (unregistered) in reply to Zapp Brannigan
    Zapp Brannigan:
    Anderson Silva:
    OzPeter:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    I take it she doesn't know about the *poisonous* spiders that make a huntsman look like a pussy. Or the snakes .. you know .. the deadly ones?

    Between the sharks, the snakes, the spiders, and the dingos, there's no reason to ever visit Australia.

    Don't forget the box jelly fish.

    Don't forget the platypus. I saw someone mention that everything was poisonous, even them. I didn't buy it and looked it up. Eeesh, you don't want to get stung (mauled? scratched?) by one of them

  • iToad (unregistered) in reply to Rob
    Rob:
    Zapp Brannigan:
    Anderson Silva:
    OzPeter:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    I take it she doesn't know about the *poisonous* spiders that make a huntsman look like a pussy. Or the snakes .. you know .. the deadly ones?

    Between the sharks, the snakes, the spiders, and the dingos, there's no reason to ever visit Australia.

    Don't forget the box jelly fish.

    Don't forget the platypus. I saw someone mention that everything was poisonous, even them. I didn't buy it and looked it up. Eeesh, you don't want to get stung (mauled? scratched?) by one of them

    Also, don't forget the Drop Bears.

  • Simon (unregistered) in reply to Mel
    Mel:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    There aren't many huntsman spiders in NZ - I never saw one in 27 years of living there. There's also only the odd whitetail and redback (both imported from Aussie, afaik), and katipo. Oh, we also have the spiders used in the movie Arachnophobia. Avondale spiders - scary-looking, but completely harmless.

    You'd be better looking out for a giant weta (again, mostly harmless)...

    When I was a kid growing up in New Zealand we had a house in Wellington which was built essentially over the top of a small creek. The bottom floor of our house was infested with giant huntsman spiders. My bedroom was unfortunately on the lower floor so it was quite common for there to be three or four lurking around. They tend to hide, and unfortunately one of the darkest places they found was under my bed. I also once had one jump on my head from the roof.

    When we shifted to Australia they had to fumigate half the stuff we'd had stored in our garage because there were no less than eight of these spiders found inside.

    I'm fairly sure that somewhere below the house was a portal directly to hell. :(

  • acid (unregistered) in reply to jgoewert
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.

    For Heaven's sake man, hope she never hears about our funnelwebs, tiapans, sharks...

    8 out of of the most poisonous snakes on Earth live Down under. Half the shark attacks and fatalities around the world happen off our shores. And the animal that causes the most damage to Aussie vehicles is the (not so) humble wombat. Basically, think Besser Brick wrapped in fur.

    Oh, and this isn't even touching on the time I was leaving work late one evening and a 7' Big Grey (a kangaroo) was waiting for me at the office entrance and followed me all the way down to my car. I thought I was going to get rolled for an energy drink or something. And THIS was in our fair nation's capital.

    Oh, and Huntsmen are basically harmless, just LOOK scary. If you have them in your house here in Oz, it's a good thing. You get less insects that way, and they're the REAL problem. Especially up North with all the risk of Ross River Fever, Malaria, etc.

    And we haven't even touched on how many people die in our deserts every year. Or the fires, drought, and floods, sometimes all at the same time in different parts of the land.

    Still, it's great. It keeps the wusses out of our fair nation, and the real heroes like the fire fighters, flying doctors etc. wanting to stay.

    Oz - if you don't have a set, don't bother coming. :)

  • (cs) in reply to acid
    acid:
    Oz - if you don't have a set, don't bother coming.

    Now that beats "So where the bloody hell are you?" hands-down for best motto for Australia!

    In Christchurch, New Zealand, we get Grey Huntsman spiders. Scary-looking and big. My usual tactic for getting spiders outside is to put a drinking glass over them. I had a Grey Huntsman in my house with a legspan bigger than a glass. I had to get a plastic box...

    As other posters have said, spiders are generally your friends. Apart from white tails- they are evil I tells ya, eeeeevilllll!

    B

  • (cs) in reply to OzPeter
    OzPeter:
    jgoewert:
    The Huntsman spider is one of the reasons my wife won't let us move to NZ or Australia. She said that if we find a spider like that in our house, we have to just leave and burn the house as it is a total loss.
    I take it she doesn't know about the *poisonous* spiders that make a huntsman look like a pussy. Or the snakes .. you know .. the deadly ones?
    You mean like black widows we used to always have on our porch. Or the carpenter ants who make wasps look like pussies?
  • Buzzard (unregistered) in reply to jgoewert

    They may live in Australia, but NOT in NZ.

  • Theresa (unregistered) in reply to Zapp Brannigan

    You forgot about the salties. (saltwater crocodiles for the non-Diggers)

  • Gary Olson (unregistered) in reply to Warren
    Warren:
    Could it have been fixed over a web interface?
    Um, the web is usually full of bugs.
  • Herby (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    al:
    Sensors can be used to make sure that the driver (and/or operator) isn't trying to cheat - keeps the truck fully on the scale. Leaving an axle off the scale will result in a low weight reading.
    In a different life, I drove a concrete truck. One day we had a pour inside a Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill, and they weighed our trucks going in (full) and coming out (empty). After I left the first time, someone at the mill called our dispatcher and told him that based on my truck's weight, I wasn't empty. This proved true on subsequent visits as well; my weight was substantially more than the other trucks. The reason, it turned out, was that I had a "log" in my drum. That's concrete terminology for a buildup of dried concrete on the fins inside the drum.

    Later that week, they rented a big air compressor and a small, hand-held jackhammer and had me get down inside the drum to break it loose. It was hot, nasty work... no air movement and lots of dust (loud as hell, too). I was wearing a mask, but it didn't stop all of the dust. After a while I got a nosebleed. I was going to get out right away, but then inspiration struck. I stayed in the truck for a few more minutes and let the white mask get thoroughly soaked with blood. Then I went in to the dispatcher.

    He took one look and ordered me to clean up and call my wife to come get me. One of the other guys had to get in my drum and finish up, and I got to go home. Hehehe!

    Ohters have mentioned the Mythbusters method for removing the buildup, but on "Dirty Jobs", the guy actually did the jackhammer technique. He mentioned that it really was a VERY dirty job.

    Me? I like the mythbusters method. Much more fun. Don't know the "success ratio", but the "fun ratio" is quite high!

  • Anonymous Sesquipedalian (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    al:
    Sensors can be used to make sure that the driver (and/or operator) isn't trying to cheat - keeps the truck fully on the scale. Leaving an axle off the scale will result in a low weight reading.
    In a different life, I drove a concrete truck. One day we had a pour inside a Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill, and they weighed our trucks going in (full) and coming out (empty). After I left the first time, someone at the mill called our dispatcher and told him that based on my truck's weight, I wasn't empty. This proved true on subsequent visits as well; my weight was substantially more than the other trucks. The reason, it turned out, was that I had a "log" in my drum. That's concrete terminology for a buildup of dried concrete on the fins inside the drum.

    Later that week, they rented a big air compressor and a small, hand-held jackhammer and had me get down inside the drum to break it loose. It was hot, nasty work... no air movement and lots of dust (loud as hell, too). I was wearing a mask, but it didn't stop all of the dust. After a while I got a nosebleed. I was going to get out right away, but then inspiration struck. I stayed in the truck for a few more minutes and let the white mask get thoroughly soaked with blood. Then I went in to the dispatcher.

    He took one look and ordered me to clean up and call my wife to come get me. One of the other guys had to get in my drum and finish up, and I got to go home. Hehehe!

    At last, a chance to use pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in a post!

  • Mad (unregistered)

    Thank god the tech didn't screen bloody merry in front of the mirror or this could have been much worse.

  • Fnord Prefect (unregistered)

    And now, the entirely appropriate "Come to Australia" by the Scared Weird Little Guys:

    Red back, funnel web, blue ringed octopus Taipan, Tiger snake, Adderbox and Jellyfish stone fish and the poison thing that lives in a shell, that spikes you when you pick it up

    Come to Australia You might accidentally get killed

    Your life's constantly under threat Have you been bitten yet? You've only got 3 minutes left Before a massive coronary breakdown

    Red back, funnel web, blue ringed octopus Taipan, Tiger snake, Adderbox and Jellyfish Big shark, just waiting for you to go swimming At Bondi Beach

    Come on

    Come to Australia You might accidentally get killed Your blood is bound to be spilled With fear your pants will be filled Because you might accidentally get killed

  • (cs)

    So I guess I should add my experience with bloody beam detector mirrors.

    The task was automation of a bottling plant (beer). The "six-packer" would wrap six bottles tightly in plastic, and a lightbeam sensor would count the sixpacks coming out. There was five six-packer lines. One beam would always drift out of sensor alignment and stop working. Always on the same line. Always on the night shift.

    So after messing around with the mounting, adding better vibration damping, we ended up sending an engineer in to sit there overnight and watch this damn sensor.

    Turns out that overnight it would get a bit chilly, which would affect the six-packer, so it would occasionally break a bunch of bottles. The line would stop, a guy would broom all the broken glass out, and it would be started again.

    It took three days before the line that was at fault died. The engie immediately noticed that when the guy with the broom approached a six-packer, he would approach from the left, and sometimes bump the catseye reflector - which wouldnt cause any alignment issues. However on the 'dodgy' line, the reflector was on the righthand side, sensor on the left. facepalm

  • A (unregistered)

    Ground Loop douche bag

  • m0ffx (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Inhibeo:
    TRWTF is the laser sensor. Surely the weighbridge can detect the presence of a large truck...by its weight?
    They're not just for weighing trucks. If you're weighing a car, or an empty container, you can't rely on a weight limit to detect its presence.
    Since they're already paying for an operator, what's wrong with the operator's EYES?
  • Meee (unregistered)

    The interesting part of this story is the fact that the spider came across at the exact same time a few nights in a row :) very interesting indeed.

    as to the weigh bridge, why use a sensor to detect presence of a truck anyway? i used to design weighbridge/landfill/quarry software and using lasers is never going to work when there's heaps of dust/dirt and so on on site.

    If these sensors are used to open/close boom gates or something then ground loops are the safest option to use together with software to trigger relays to open/close the gate.

    m0ffx:
    Since they're already paying for an operator, what's wrong with the operator's EYES?
    The are just that, operators.....
  • Fry (unregistered)

    Why do people continually confuse 'reticent' which means 'not willing to talk' and 'reluctant' which means 'not wanting to do something' !?

  • 50% Opacity (unregistered) in reply to al
    al:
    Sensors can be used to make sure that the driver (and/or operator) isn't trying to cheat - keeps the truck fully on the scale. Leaving an axle off the scale will result in a low weight reading.

    Not a problem to be solved technically, now is it? Especially if there's an operator around. With the sensor failing, two people were trying to get a machine to do the job that the one operator could've done alone.

  • 50% Opacity (unregistered) in reply to Brandon
    Brandon:
    As a side note, the REAL wtf is this comment system. I've never commented before and using all that BBCode was cumbersome. Can't the commands just be a side panel of the add comment page? Does it really have to be a link to a lookup table? I had to open in a new tab and switch between tabs multiple times to make sure I had the correct syntax.

    Aaaawwwwwwww, there there.

  • MadtM (unregistered) in reply to Jasmine
    Jasmine:
    Good for you that a spider is not an insect. Personally, I don't mind spiders in my house, and I can't say I understand why people are so afraid of them - 99% of them are perfectly harmless.

    Yeah, I agree. My wife gets the house nuked twice a year, but I think the chemicals are worse for us than the spiders. Just sayin', but not to her...

  • Jijoy (unregistered)

    Hi , Your narrative skill rocks man !!! I felt you tells things better than Jeff in Coding Horror

    Thanks man for this wonderful blog

  • Nick (unregistered)

    Actually Huntsman spiders fangs can not penetrate human skin. So they are completely harmless.

    so TRWTF is that your scared of them.

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